The movie would be based on “Cycle of Lies,” the forthcoming investigative account from “New York Times” reporter Juliet Macur. The Lance Armstrong story is getting a renewed push to the big screen in the wake of his admission to Oprah that he used performance enhancing drugs (PED). Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot have secured the movie rights to the proposal for The New York Times sportswriter Juliet Macur’s forthcoming book Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Read more below!Russ B
Macur covered cycling and Armstrong for the Times from his recovery from cancer through his seven Tour de France victories to the inquiries surrounding his possible use of PEDs.HarperCollins snapped up the book project in November in a pre-empt for a reported six-figure advance. Macur was repped by Janklow & Nesbit on the book deal.Publication is scheduled for June 2013.Two other Armstrong related projects were in the works but stalled late last year. One was to be based on his 2001 memoir It’s Not About the Bike. Another project was being developed by Ed Pressman (Wall Street Money Never Sleeps).Projects based on accounts from Armstrong’s accusers, notably former teammate Tyler Hamilton’s The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs were also being shopped but never sold.This is the first project to be announced since Armstrong confessed to using PEDs during the interview with Oprah Winfrey. The first part of the conversation aired last night on OWN. Part two airs tonight.